A woman holds a camera and films another woman speaking in front of an earthen building
Blog Post

Travelogue: On the Ground with The Met and WMF in West Africa

June 20, 2023 | by Jonathan S. Bell, PhD
A woman holds a camera and films another woman speaking in front of an earthen building

Dear friends,

Earlier this year, I traveled to Liberia and Ghana as part of a trip coordinated by World Monuments Fund (WMF) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The interviews, ceremonies, and site footage captured by Met Research Associate and award-winning filmmaker Sosena Solomon during our travels will be displayed in The Met, complementing its sub-Saharan African art by providing context in the voices of local people.

Our first destination was Providence Island, an island in the center of Monrovia that Indigenous communities used as a place for schooling and ceremonies before American settlers arrived in what is now Liberia. Though older residents remember Providence Island fondly, the site has been cut off from the mainland since Liberia’s Civil War. Now, community members are calling for restored access to the space as a symbol of post-war reconciliation.

Next, our trip took us to Kumasi, Ghana, once the capital of the Asante Kingdom. Today, the area around Kumasi is home to the few traditional Asante earthen buildings that still survive. After naming Asante Traditional Buildings to the World Monuments Watch in 2012, we did so again in 2022, and our current project revolves around the stabilization of Adako Jachie Shrine for continued local community use and to begin welcoming tourists. We also had the privilege of speaking to Abirem Shrine’s resident priestess. Traditional religious authorities like her play a key part in shrine upkeep, but their dwindling number poses a challenge for maintenance of the earthen structures.

The last stop on my itinerary was Accra, where I visited the WEB DuBois community library and museum, the last home and final resting place of the acclaimed Black intellectual. A building by Adjaye Associates is in the works to complement DuBois’s former house, which now serves as a popular community library. While in Accra, I also had the opportunity to speak with local heritage advocates and visit potential future Watch sites to expand WMF’s partnerships in Ghana.

I am grateful to those I traveled with and those I met along the way—and I’m excited to experience Sosena’s extraordinary film and audio in The Met’s galleries soon. For more details on WMF’s partnership with The Met, I invite you to read our press release.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Bell

Vice President of Programs

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A view of trees and leaf-littered forest floor.
View of the forested parts of Providence Island, Liberia

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A woman holding a camer and filming as a group of children dance
Sosena Solomon filming a performance of traditional dance at Providence Island, Liberia

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A crowd of people gathered in the foreground while figures in the background sit under the shade of colorful parasols
Audience of the Asantehene (Asante ruler) in Kumasi, Ghana, on the occasion of the Akwasidae Festival

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A woman and a man in traditional Ghanaian dress are seated on wooden stools and speak into a camera
Sosena Solomon filming the resident priestess of Abirem Shrine, one of the Traditional Asante Buildings in Ghana

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Woman in grass skirt with chalk-painted skin dancing
The priestess of Abirem Shrine, one of the Asante Traditional Shrines in Ghana, dancing as she is possessed by a deity during an Akwasidae ceremony

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View of a building showing carved wooden door and clay walls, the upper parts white and the lower parts red, with raised geometric designs
Adinkra designs at the entrance to Asawasi Shrine, one of the Asante Traditional Buildings in Ghana

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A man in the courtyard of a building speaking as a man and a woman film him
Sosena Solomon and Stephen Battle filming a guide at Besease Shrine, of of the Asante Traditional Buildings in Ghana

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Various wreaths of colorful flowers laid on a stone slab in a wood-paneled room
W.E.B. DuBois Memorial Library in Accra, Ghana